Rainforest facts

RAINFOREST FACTS

THE GOOD

THE AMAZON RAINFOREST is the world’s largest tropical rainforest and the greatest natural resource on earth; it is also the most powerful and bio-actively diverse natural phenomenon on this planet covering an area of approximately 2.3 Million square miles. The disapearing Rainforest! – (Also please read The Fact’s below, thank you)

THE BAD

These magnificent, botanically rich rainforests are decreasing at the rate of 200,000 acres each and every day, that’s a staggering 138 acres of rainforest lost every minute of every single day. Thanks to the chain saw and forest burning.

Question/ Why is this incredible natural resource being destroyed at such an alarming rate?

Answer/ For the harvesting of unsustainable products like timber, cattle grazing and agriculture, also for subsistence cropping by those inhabitants that eke out a meagre living in the rainforest.

THE UGLY

The ugly truth is this. Once the giant tree’s have been felled or burned down, and the resulting grassland has been grazed out, or the agricultural products have yielded perhaps just one or two crops, the earth is barren. Hardly even capable of sustaining scrub grass let alone the once magnificent jungles and rainforest that used to thrive there. This is not to mention the natural wildlife whose habitat is constantly being destroyed. The choice they have is they move, or they die, or even more alarmingly become extinct. Experts estimate that we are now losing over 130 species of plants, animals and insects every single day, as they lose their natural habitats through deforestation. Tragically, the rainforests that once covered 14% of the world’s land mass, now only covers a mere 6%. In less than 50 years, man, in his infinite wisdom and greed has destroyed well over half of the world’s tropical rainforest. Experts estimate that if this destruction continues at its present rate, then within 40 year’s the last remaining rainforest’s will be gone! So tell me, how many cures of devastating diseases have we already lost?

AND THESE, ARE THE FACT’S

This amazing rainforest produces a huge variety of plant life. Indeed scientists have found more than 3,000 different species of plants and 280 different species of trees in just 1 square mile, and overall, there are tens of thousands of different plant species that live there.

In this humid, botanically rich environment, live many indigenous Indian tribes. They have co-existed with nature in complete harmony for many hundreds (if not thousands) of years. During that time they have learned a tremendous amount about the healing properties and secrets that are contained within the various herbs and botanicals of the rainforest.

The healers or medicine men of each tribe are known as ‘Shamans’. It is they that practice the art of healing. Their knowledge has been passed down from generation to generation. Each learning new cures and gaining fresh skills and knowledge along the way.

Many of these are used by the physicians of today. For example, Curare arrow poison is used in treating tetanus and hydrophobia. The ‘Shamans’ also use Quinine, which is used in treating malaria. They have muscle relaxants, steroids, treatments for arthritis, skin, hair heart, kidneys & liver, the list goes on.

More important are the new drugs awaiting discovery, a drug for Cancer, AIDS, Alzheimer’s Diabetes. Who knows? So many secrets and untold treasures still await discovery with the medicinal plants used by the “healers” that over 100 pharmaceutical companies and even the US government are currently funding projects to study the indigenous plant knowledge and the specific plants used by the native ‘shamans’ and healers. Good news for us!!

In surgical terms, and in addition to the setting of broken bones etc, the Inca developed trephining which means the removal of part of the skull, and is used to relieve pressure on the brain, quite advanced for ancient medicine men, don’t you think!

Research and Documentation.

To develop these new rainforest botanical products, The Raintree Group of Companies researches, documents and tests new and exciting plants for their effectiveness and safety. Research begins by working with indigenous tribal healers and shamans, as well as rainforest community herbal healers called curanderos. Plus other natural health practitioners, herbalists and researchers in South American cities.

The aim is to target potential plants that have important medical values and benefits. Worldwide document gathering and literature searches compile and compare what other ethnobotanists, botanists, and researchers have discovered and tested about the properties, uses, and effectiveness of the plants. Phytochemical research and testing is funded and performed when necessary to substantiate the safety and effectiveness of the rainforest botanicals under development.

Sustainable Harvesting.

Once the documentation process is completed, Raintree sets up sustainable harvesting in the rainforest. Contracting with landowners for wild harvesting rights, working with established extractive reserves, which are trying to preserve critical sections of the rainforest.

Working with government agencies, to wild harvest government owned rainforest lands to gather the botanicals, competes successfully and directly with other non-sustainable land usage. It results in higher profits and yield from the land while protecting it from destruction. Careful attention is paid to the sustainable yield of the land, so that the same botanical resources can be harvested year after year.

Local rainforest communities and villages perform the actual harvesting, as well as Indigenous Tribal groups. This keeps the profits where they need to be and where they have the most impact – in local economies. This again gives these communities an economic reason not to destroy the rainforest for subsistence crops since they can typically earn 8 – 10 times more money wild harvesting the forest around them than they can by chopping and burning it down for crops.

Botanical processing & Manufacturing.

Once harvested and imported into the country, Raintree utilizes the most technologically advanced extraction, processing and purification methods to offer the highest quality and the most effective botanical products available in the market. These include proprietary and / or patented herbal extraction methods for medicinal plant extracts, transdermal carrier systems for natural ingredients, water soluble oils and topical herbal extracts for body care products, liposome and glycolic herbal liquid extracts, and standardized guaranteed potency extracts.

So Can the Rainforest Be Saved?

YES! Harvesting sustainable resources in the rainforest may well be the only real solution to save it from complete destruction. While there has been a growing universal awareness and public outcry against the rainforest destruction, the destruction of our Earth’s remaining rainforest’s has actually increased since 1992. Large multi-national timber companies pay only $.60 (sixty cents) to $3.00 (3 Dollars) per acre for the right to cut down timber in the rainforest, and leave behind a wake of destruction, which virtually destroys many other sustainable resources the forest provides leaving it barren. While it is estimated that sustainable harvesting of one acre of the Peruvian Amazon can produce over $2400.00 for the local population annually, and save the rainforest from destruction!

So help us to help them. You know it makes sense!

Data correct when compiled